In Quake II, Shotgun Guards are one of the three stroggified humans who wear pale green armor. Shotgun Guards are equipped with a Shotgun. They are in between the Light Guard and Machine Gun Guard regarding strength. The Shotgun Guard acts and moves like the Light Guard and the Machine Gun Guard. Despite having low health, the Shotgun Guard can inflict major damage if it hits you at close range.

Instant effect Shotgun that does 24 damage if all the pellets hit the player. Compared to the Light Guard, this is rather a lot of damage. The Shotgun Guard can fire in quick succession and if left alive, can do a lot of damage in a short period of time.

Alone, the Shotgun Guard is a very easy kill, although more difficult than a Light Guard as its Shotgun is very difficult to dodge. The Shotgun Guard still has little health and can easily be killed with any weapon before he can deal any serious damage.

A group of Shotgun Guards are also equally easy to kill, although be careful as they can easily destroy a player if fought at close range. Stay away from them, then destroy them with the Machine Gun or an explosive between them. If you have low health and encounter a large group of Shotgun Guards, lure them out of the room one by one and grab your shotgun. Shoot them down as soon as they come in, otherwise they will shoot you.

With other enemies, the Shotgun Guard can do some major damage if you ignore it. While you're fighting other enemies, a Shotgun Guard can get close to you (or you get close to it) and inflict some major damage on you. To get rid of it, shoot an explosive at it or get it in between the player and a stronger enemy so that the Shotgun Guard is killed in the cross fire but attention isn't taken off the more lethal bigger enemies. The explosive will gib it and inflict splash damage on nearby enemies.

Sometimes a downed Guard of any of the three classes (Light, Shotgun or Machine Gun) will perform a final attack before actually dying, which can be dangerous if your health is low and you're right in front of him. Either avoid the attack or take a few extra shots to gib the body.